Newt Gingrich is such an asshole. This is not news. The Simpsons made fun of him tonight, which is just made of win. Homer had his own show on Fox News (though they didn't call it that, it was pretty obvious) and Marge said something to him about how awful he was. He said, "Oh Marge. It's just a character. Like Stephen Colbert. Or Newt Gingrich." God, how I love The Simpsons.
Anyway. Last week, the blowhard said, "On Thursday morning, the two points came together when he said he would go to the NAACP convention and explain "why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps."
Um, no. There are so many things wrong with this, it's not even funny. First of all, most people getting food stamps also work. They work shitty, lousy, hard, miserable jobs for too many hours for too little money. No one lives on food stamps and is "satisfied" with it. Second, propagating negative stereotypes like 'the lazy black man' doesn't help anyone and is just plain wrong. Third, is it even true that a disproportionate amount of black people are on food stamps? I honestly don't know. This indicates that, yes, that might be the case, with the exception of the Dakotas (because hello. if you're black and impoverished, you get the fuck out of the Dakotas if you can). So, is one's conclusion that black people get food stamps because they're too lazy to get good jobs? HELL NO. Could it be that black folks get crappier jobs and need food stamps because of racism? Hell yes.
Now, when I first heard what Gingrich said, my first thought was "YES!" but that's because I was coming at it from a socialist angle. Hell yes, the impoverished working class should stand up and say "NO! This is not enough. This is not acceptable. We need good jobs. We need benefits. We need health care. We need good food and good food availability. We need daycare. We need to be paid what we're worth." But that's not what Newt was saying, and I knew that immediately because I *never* agree with that over-privileged piece of festering shit and so I had to step back and figure out what he was saying and what I was hearing and how they differed.
I used to joke that Canada had elected Newt Gingrich and a parliament of Newts and Kucinichs. But Newt? He's like Harper if he thought he could say whatever he wants. Like drunk Harper. It's scary shit. I mean, this is what he's saying while campaigning? What the hell would he do with power?
